A Quest of a School Year
by WhimsicalAnimeFan
Summary: Alba Fruhling is a new student at Senyuu High, home of the Demons. He's determined this year to actually make friends, but sometimes it's difficult, and who does Ross think he is? Crea's sweet, Teufel's never awake during class, and is that a spark of romance between Alf and Elf? Whatever's happening, it's going to be an adventure for sure!
1. The Start of a New Day

Alba Fruhling could hear the ticking of each second as it passed, signaled by the wall clock to the side. As he stood, for the first time, in front of his peers, he tried to calm his breathing. Why had the teacher asked him to stand there as the rest of the class trickled in and sat down? Well actually, Alba half knew the answer; he was the new student. His family, consisting of him and his mother and father, had just moved from only a couple towns over. His old home was close enough that he was vaguely familiar with the area, but far enough that he had to transfer over to a whole new school system.

Tick

Tock

Tick

Tock

The second hand only seemed to get louder and louder as the class got fuller and fuller. _Calm down_ , he warned himself, _this is a good opportunity to meet people, don't mess this up_. It was true, this move was probably good for him. After all, he didn't leave behind a single friend at his last school, so with a whole new pool of people who have never heard about how embarrassing he was, he had the chance to make a friend.

Yes, Alba Fruhling was going to be optimistic this year!

As the morning bell went off, his teacher, Mr. Attena, started by saying that they had a new student and gestured towards Alba, who had now been awkwardly standing in front of everyone for a least the past 5 minutes. Alba then brightly introduced himself and mentioned how excited he was to meet everyone, before being sent to sit at an open desk.

Alba sat down and Mr. Attena jumped into the history lesson. Being new didn't negate his need to do things right, so Alba attentively scribbled his notes at the lecture droned on, knowing that he was going to have to do so much make up work to catch up. Thankfully, it was only the third week of class, so catching up wasn't going to be too hard; he just needed to befriend a classmate. That was going to be the major problem.

About halfway through the class, the PowerPoint lecture was finished, and Mr. Attena began to pass out a worksheet to work on in pairs. When he made it to Alba's seat, he stopped.

"I never really got to introduce myself to you," the short, elderly teacher mentioned, "The schedules name me as Mr. Attena, but all my students refer to me by my first name, Rudolf. Feel free to stop by my classroom if you need help catching up."

Alba looked at his worksheet, and since it was a partner activity, he knew he had to work on it with the person next to him, if what the rest of the class was doing was any sort of example.

"I'm Alba!" he said to the person sitting next to him, as he extended his arm.

"I heard you introduce yourself," his neighbor said, clad in a navy blue tee and a wine colored scarf, "Do you take me for some sort of idiot?"

"No!" Alba said, shooting up his arms in defense, "I didn't mean to imply anything like that! I just wanted to know what your name was!"

"I'm Ross," he said, looking down at his sheet instead of at Alba, "What's the answer to question one?"

Alba did not pick up on the fact that Ross was only copying his answers until the worksheet was completely finished. He was actually a little angry and upset, but before he could confront his partner about it, the bell rang and Ross bolted towards his next class. Grumbling, Alba packed away his notebook, trying not to let this anger ruin his first day at a new school.

"Is he always like that?!" Alba asked aloud to no one in particular. He might need to consider asking about changing seats if this sort of thing were going to continue. He wasn't going to be the one who did everyone else's assignments!

"Yeah, but at least he's not like Teufel or Ares," a voice said from behind him, "He sometimes helps a little."

Alba turned around and saw someone a few inches taller than him, with a dark tan, spiky hair, and a green tank top.

"Ah, how rude am I not introducin' myself! I'm Elf November!" the classmate said, sticking out his hand for a handshake, "You said yer name was Alba, right?"

Alba nodded his head and shook Elf's hand. Ok, this guy had a firm grip.

"So where's yer next class? I can help you get there!"

Alba looked down at the schedule he had printed that morning, "Uhh, I have English 11 with Mr. Lyman Oz Baum in C201."

"So do I! I can walk you there!"

Alba felt a wave of relief. This guy seemed maybe a little too eccentric, but definitely nice enough. Maybe he would leave school today with a budding friendship after all!

As they walked to their next class, Elf babbled on about Mr. Baum, "He's the soccer couch, so most students here call him Coach Baum. He has this really cool lookin' scar on his face, nobody knows how he's got it. Sometimes he doesn't really act like he knows what he's doin', but he's a pretty chill teacher."

When they finally reached the class, Alba wasn't really sure if he was going to like Mr. Baum or not. Elf walked over to his seat while Alba hesitantly approached the teacher's desk. It appears Elf had not been exaggerating about the teacher's face scar. As Alba approached, Mr. Baum looked up from a pile of what seemed to be graded quizzes.

"Uh, who are you?" Mr. Baum said.

"I'm the new student, Alba Fruhling."

"Oh good! I thought I was forgetting my dear students names for a second."

Alba continued to stand in front of the desk as Mr. Baum cleared up some of his papers. A moment later, they dropped onto the floor, "Wait a second, did you say Fruhling?" When Alba nodded, he continued, "You wouldn't happen to know a Midnight Fruhling?"

"Yeah he's my dad," Alba said, wondering who Mr. Baum was. He seemed very excited about Alba's dad, but Alba had never heard anything about a Lyman Oz Baum in his dad's stories of the past.

"Well your dad and I are old high school pals! He completely showed me up at soccer my Junior year! Since then we were friends!"

"My dad played soccer?!" Alba asked, rather confused. His dad's tales were barely rooted in reality, as Alba was well aware, but at the very least, some facts could sneak their way in.

The bell rang, signaling the beginning of class.

"Good morning class!" Lyman shouted over the chattering voices of his class, "Today we're welcoming a new student, Alba Fruhling!" He pointed to a student sitting next to an empty seat "Crea Crossfield! I'm leaving him in your hands! Make sure he knows what he's doing!"

The first thing Alba noticed about Crea was his black and white dyed hair. The second thing was his cheery personality.  
"Leave it to me!" Crea said, striking what he must have deemed was a cool pose.

Alba walked over to the desk and dropped his bag on top before plopping down in the seat beside Crea.

"So you're new here? Where are you from?" Crea asked eagerly.

"Oh I'm only from a few towns over, in Turtle," Alba replied, disappointed in how boring his answer must have sounded.

Crea's excited face didn't dim, "Oh so that means you know the area a little! That's good. Is moving such a big change, or do you think it's weirder when you only move a little bit?" and like that Crea was off talking a mile a minute.

English passed in a blur, and then he said goodbye to Crea before heading to German II. He didn't recognize anyone in there as anyone he had talked to yet that day, and nothing happened notably in there. After German, he went to Science, and took care to sit far, far away from that Ross kid from first period, so they weren't paired for a lab that Alba would do by himself. Lunch followed Science and that was how Alba found himself looking around the cafeteria.

* * *

Crea was in such a good mood after meeting Alba second period. He just had a good feeling about him, and when Crea had a good feeling about something, he was often right.

"Hey Crea did you meet that new student?" Ross asked as Crea sat down across from him.

"Yeah!" Crea replied, "Alba, right? I think he's great! Oh hey! Look! He's in this lunch!"

Ross looked up from his tray and followed Crea's finger to see Alba standing like a confused lost puppy, holding his lunch tray in the middle of the cafeteria.

"He looks like some sort of idiot with no place to sit," Ross smirked as he returned his focus to his lunch.

"We should invite him to sit with us!" Crea suggested. Ross clenched his fork and opened his mouth prepared to make his threat, but before he could stop it, Crea stood up and shouted loudly, "Alba! Over here! Sit with us!"

Ross had facepalmed, but between his fingers, he was looking at Alba. Wow Alba looked cute when he smiled in relief, and nope Ross was going to put a stop to attraction before it even happened. Not this time. No.

"Hi Crea!" Alba said cheerily as he approached the table. He put down his tray on the table next to Ross and slid into the bench. He hadn't even finished sitting when Ross took a fry off his tray.

"Hey! What was that for!?" Alba shouted.

"It's just a fry," Ross said, "Did it really mean that much to you?"

"Oh it's you," Alba said, and Ross actually felt a little hurt about how disappointed the statement sounded.

"Oh does Alba know Shion?" Crea beamed, not quite realizing the tension.

"Shion?" Alba asked.

"Crea's nickname for me," Ross said. Why had Crea invited Alba to sit with them? He shot Crea a glare as he took a bite of his apple.

"So what class have you got after this?" Crea asked Alba, trying to avoid Ross's sudden death glare.

The three ate lunch in an awkward half conversation, carried mostly by Crea.

* * *

Alf Parkinton was most definitely not in love with his best friend. Not at all.

"So the new student's name is Alba and he seems cool. I think I wanna invite him to sit with us fer lunch sometimes," Elf continued, babbling about how awesome that dumb new student seemed.

Ok so maybe Alf was super jealous, but that didn't mean that he loved his friend romantically. They had just been together since elementary school, and he didn't want that messed up, that was all. At least that's what he told himself as he bitterly tore bites from his PB and J sandwich, growing more and more impatient as Elf continued to gush about Alba. He had gotten to where Elf was describing Alba's warm brown eyes before he had enough.

"I've got to print something in the library!" Alf said, masking his anger, as always.

"Ok! I'll see you after school!" Elf called after him.

 _I hope Alba's straight_ , Alf found himself thinking, before scolding himself for being so selfish. It should be enough for Elf to be happy.

 _Should be_


	2. Dynamic Duos

Alba walked to his art class. He wasn't sure exactly why he had chosen art as his elective, other than the fact that the music class he wanted to take was unfortunately full. He knew he couldn't draw, but there was no harm in trying something new, right? Besides, he could always try to sign up for an after school club for music.

Despite the fact that he had arrived before the bell rang, some students were already immersed in their projects. A brief talk with the teacher revealed that it was open seating. The tables in front of him seemed cluttered already, especially with the art supplies everywhere.

Eventually Alba found a seat at the emptiest table in the room. With only two other students it stood out, as some other tables had upwards 8 people. One of the students had shoulder length raven black hair and a shirt advertising some show called "Ninja Star" while the other one had bright red hair and looked like some sort of punk. Actually, now that he got closer both looked fairly menacing. Raven-haired ninja shirt was sucking on a lollipop with his face hidden while red haired punk had his arms crossed and leaned back in his chair, eyes closed.

 _Maybe I should turn around_ , Alba thought for a second, but he didn't move. Instead his legs remained rooted to the ground in fear. There had to be a reason that in the crowded class, this table was nearly empty, and if he couldn't sit with the menacing duo, where was he going to sit? His eyes darted back and forth through the class, thinking of trying to find another place to sit, but before he could move, he was interrupted.

"You going to sit with us or not?"

Alba looked towards the voice to find out it was that of the red haired punk, who hadn't moved or even opened his eyes. The raven-haired ninja fan on the other hand was now staring at him, looking much less intimidating from this angle.

"Uh…sure," Alba said before sitting across from the duo. Not wanting to pass up the chance at making more friends, Alba brightly introduced himself, "Hi! I'm Alba. I'm new here and just transferred into this school."

"Hello hello! I'm Janua!" The raven-haired guy replied, "And this is my friend Samejima."

"Yo," Samejima said, opening his eyes to look at Alba a moment before closing them again.

"Nice to meet you," Alba said, much more confidently now that he had begun conversation.

"Likewise," Samejima said, sitting up as the bell rang.

Alba looked back at Janua's shirt, "What's _Ninja Star_?"

Janua face lit up at the question, "You don't know?! _Ninja Star_ is only the greatest show ever! It's the adventure of a lone ninja trying to revive the sacred artifacts using his power of the Ninja Star!" Janua then struck what Alba could only assume was some sort of ninja pose.

"Heh," Samejima smiled looking at Janua, "'tis an epic adventure of a worthy man."

"I might check it out later," Alba said, with little intention of actually checking it out.

"So Alba, you're new here?" Samejima said, turning the conversation towards Alba.

"Yeah," Alba said sheepishly, "I just moved here from Turtle, so I didn't move far. But I'm excited about new opportunities here."

"With an attitude like that you're sure to prosper here!" Samejima said, clenching his fist, "Seize today!"

Alba knew it didn't really make sense, but this guys confidence in him made him feel better. Sure Ross was being a major jerk to him earlier, but this year was already looking better than his previous ones. Crea was being super nice to him earlier, even though he appeared close to Ross, that Elf guy had been friendly, and now Janua and Samejima were being kind to him.

"Hey speaking of seizing the day, what are you doing after school, Alba?" Janua asked, doing another ridiculous ninja pose.

"I have to go speak to the guidance office," Alba replied, "They want to make sure I'm adjusting alright."

"Of course," Janua nodded, "But when that's done you should consider joining the soccer team!"

"Mr. Baum's the coach, right?" Alba asked, remembering what Elf was telling him earlier.

"You've met Coach Baum-dono?" Janua asked.

Alba wasn't exactly sure what was up with the dono thing, but he answered, "Yeah he's my English teacher."

"You really should join!" Janua said.

"Practices are a blast," Samejima agreed.

"And you can drop gym if you play a sport and have that count as your credit," Janua added. "I tried to get the school to start a martial arts sports team, but there wasn't enough interest."

"It was just Janua and me."

As Janua went on to talk about his super awesome ninjitsutsus, Alba looked around the class. Most students had already started working on projects, but a few weren't. One actually seemed to be taking a very peaceful nap, while another student was carving something into the desk. The teacher, Ms Rubberneck, did nothing at all to promote actual work, instead electing to sit at her desk reading gossip tabloids. On the board was only a note of "work on your self portraits independently."

That was not a good way to teach! Alba was there to learn, not to scribble on a sheet of people while the teacher read magazines! Perhaps this was not a normal day with this teacher, but that seemed unlikely. Luckily, Janua and Samejima soon pulled out their projects, and they were more than helpful aiding Alba in starting his.

His last class that day was math, which went by about as slowly and painfully as he expected. Ross was in that class too, and Alba went out of his way to make sure he was far away from him.

Out of the 6 classes he had gone to so far, 3 of them had Ross in them. Science and Math weren't going to be as bad, since they weren't sitting near each other, but they sat right next to each other in History, which he hoped didn't regularly have partner activities. Since they were on a rotating schedule, there was still one class he hadn't had yet: gym. There were many horrors of gym, and he wasn't sure he would be able to stand that sort of humiliation in front of Ross. If they were in that class together, he was going to have to really consider joining the soccer team.

At the meeting with his guidance councilor, he assured her that everything was fine.

Ross wasn't in the mood to stay after today. He didn't particularly like going home, but he didn't want to see Alba's dumb face again. Crea was bound to do something like invite Alba over to hang out, and Ross definitely did not want Alba seeing where he lived. So instead of going to the library like he normally did after school, he went to pick up Crea from his home economics class to go home.

On the long walk back Crea was talking about how good his apple pie came out and how they should find reason to bake apple pies more often. Then we went rambling about how he could make so many tasty treats once the class was over. Ross nodded along, listening to his friend's excitement. He was kind of envious of Crea, to be honest, since Crea had managed to hang on to his honest optimism through everything, though from the start Ross was never a bucket of sunshine.

Meanwhile, Ross found himself thinking about the new kid, Alba. From what he could tell, this guy had some sort of naivety-what kind and to what extent, Ross wasn't sure- as well as lacked confidence. If Ross was still being honest with himself, he found that he actually quite liked Alba, so by the time the duo reached the front door of their foster home, Ross decided that the next day, he was going to make more of an effort to talk to Alba.

Teufel Diabolos felt clever. After 2 years of hard work to finish most of his academic credits early, now his schedule was clear to load up mostly on electives. His last class today was home economics, which was mostly baking, and sometimes sewing. Today they had baked apple pies.

"Hey Teuf," a coy voice said as an arm wrapped around his shoulder. His gaze drifted upwards to see the arm's owner, his blue haired…errr…for lack of a better term his blue haired friend.

"Oh, hey Ares."

"You're heading to my soccer practice today, right?" Ares asked.

"No," Teufel replied, totally straight faced, "Why would I go sit on a bench and watch people run around?" And there were going to be too many people he didn't know there, he thought to himself.

"Because you'd be able to see that really cool trick I've been working on!" Ares had now released Teufel from her grasp, and had her hands on her hips, standing tall like some sort of action hero…or something.

"I think I'll pass," Teufel said, not even bothering to continue looking at her.

He wasn't looking at her, but they had done this sort of routine enough times that he already knew that she was clutching her chest when she called out, "You will rue the day you mocked the great Ares!"

Teufel laughed quietly to himself as he walked out of the school and towards his bus.

Even after school, Alf found himself annoyed at Elf's rambling about the new student. At least now it was mixed into conversation about other things, but every time Elf brought up Alba's name, Alf felt a pain in his heart and his hand clench into a fist. Despite all this, he was going to try! He was going to be the supportive friend!

"Somethin' botherin' ya?" Elf asked as the two walked towards academic decathlon.

Alf opened his mouth to answer, but no words came out. Why was Elf making this so much harder? He was normally oblivious! Why now of all times was he observant?! He tried harder and harder to spit out words, but nothing came out.

Elf immediately became concerned, "Alf? You alright?! Ya know I'm fer sure always willin' to listen, okay? I'm here fer ya!"

When Alf looked up, Elf's arms were opened, offering a hug if needed, and Alf greedily accepted. As they embraced, Elf soothingly stroked Alf's long blonde hair, and Alf was able to better compose himself.

"'s ok if ya don't wanna talk about it," Elf continued, pulling away and holding Alf at arm's length away, "But ya don't hafta keep your emotions all bottled up. I'm here for ya! Ok, Alf?"

Alf smiled, feeling genuinely better. "Thanks Elf! We should probably get going. We don't want the rest of the club waiting."


	3. Facebook Friends

"Strahl! Ein! Stop showing off! If you try these theatrics during a game the other team's going to score!"

It was a normal soccer practice. It all began when Ares had to show off her new move, and just barely messed it up, but then Janua had to show off _his_ new move, inspired by a cool jutsu that the hero of Ninja Star had done in the most recent episode, and sent a ball flying off the field. The two then fell into their daily pattern of trying to one up each other with failing tricks instead of doing their dribbling exercises.

And now Coach Baum was yelling at them…again.

"Laps, both of you!"

Practice went on water break while Ares and Janua raced each other around the track, neither wanting to be showed up by the other. Coach Baum sat on the bench next to Samejima while the team loaded up on water and orange slices.

"Why are you here?" the coach asked, "You don't even play, but you're at almost every practice."

"I am here to support my friend," Samejima said nobly.

"Ah, that makes sense," Coach Baum nodded, "Alright then, carry on."

Today Janua had finished his 10 laps just slightly before Ares, and was jumping and cheering and waving to Samejima from the finishing line, while Ares clenched her fist and was as animated as ever.

Alba fell onto his bed after getting home from school. Boxes were spread throughout his house, and he had so much unpacking to do, but the day really drained a lot out of him. He needed a nap.

Next thing he new, his mom was knocking on his bedroom door. A groggy glance to his clock revealed it was 5:47, over two hours since he lied down.

"It's almost time for dinner," his mom said as Alba sat up, "Your father really wants to know about your first day."

J( ＾◡＾)っ

Alba wiped his eyes and blinked a few times to wake himself up. His mom continued, "Just come downstairs when you're awake," before she retreated back downstairs.

Moments later, Alba grabbed his laptop off his nightstand and logged in. He had just wanted to check his email before heading downstairs, but while he was at it, he opened facebook, despite the fact that nothing normally happened. He didn't have very many friends after all. When the page loaded, he was surprised to find a little red notification indicating that he had TWO friend requests. Clicking the button revealed that Crea Crossfield and Janua Ein had requested to be his friend. Crea's profile picture was of himself laughing with an arm around a slightly annoyed but still half smiling Ross, while Janua's was a color pencil drawing of himself as a Ninja. Alba quickly accepted both requests before rushing downstairs to have dinner with his family.

Crea sprawled out on the top bunk, which was his. He was reading assigned chapter of _The Catcher in the Rye_ somewhat absentmindedly. Personally, he didn't really get it. He was only on chapter 3, but already getting somewhat exhausted by how cynical Holden was being. He was thankful when Ross came into the room and plopped on the bottom bunk as he munched on an apple. Finally there was a distraction.

Ross was thinking about how he could approach Alba the next day. At the moment it seemed that the new student had started disliking him. Ross thought about maybe being slightly more helpful in history the next day. As he contemplated the idea, Crea's head suddenly popped down from the bunk above him.

"Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiion."

"What do you want Crea?"

"I'm bored!"

"Are you done reading that book for English?"

"No, I'm not getting it!" Crea whined.

"Do you want me to hit you over the head with it?" Ross asked.

"No thanks!" Crea quickly replied, sitting back up on the top bunk. Crea stared down at the cover for a minute before asking, "Shion, did you like reading _The Catcher in the Rye_?"

"I just used Sparknotes," Ross replied.

Crea sighed. The room was fairly quiet, except for the sound of Ross biting and chewing an apple. Since Ross wasn't being cooperative as far as distractions went, Crea decided to give up on that and pull out his netbook. Maybe someone online would be helpful! He logged onto Facebook and noticed a little red notification.

"Alba accepted my friend request!" Crea exclaimed.

This got Ross interested, and in moments he had climbed up and plopped down next to Crea. "Let's go through his profile," he suggested as Crea clicked on Alba's page.

"Wow he only has 21 facebook friends, so disappointing," Ross remarked.

"Don't be mean! He might just be selective about friending people!"

"Then why would he friend _you_?"

"Because I'm awesome," Crea smiled.

"No you aren't," Ross said, letting a laugh seep into his voice.

Crea elected to ignore him. "Hey look, he has some photos."

Ross switched his target back from Alba, "He still sleeps with a stuffed animal!" The image of Alba was taken fairly recently; he looked to be about the same age. He was in the backseat of a car curled up, arms wrapped tightly around a teddy bear, sleeping. It was posted by Midnight Fruhling with the subtitle "I love my son 3 Look at him nap!"

"His teddy bear is so cute!" Crea said before flipping through more of Alba's pictures.

Once they got back a few months in Alba's tagged photos, they discovered photo after photo of Alba, but with pink dyed hair and black clothes with metal clasps, rings, and zippers.

"He used to be scene," Ross practically snorted.

"Is it scene? Or is it more emo?" Crea asked.

"I don't know, but look at him!"

"His clothes look cool though," Crea said, "I wonder what I would look like dressed like that?"

Ross rolled his eyes, "Don't."

Crea looked back to the screen, "Ooooh, look! Alba's online now! Maybe we can chat!"

At this moment, Ross decided to climb back down and plop back down on his bunk. He had his own homework to be doing, after all. As he went through his list of homework, he started to regret taking two science classes, especially back to back. Alba was in his biology class though, and that had promise to be exciting.

Meanwhile Crea had early messaged Alba:

hello! ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

Alba:

Hi Crea.

Crea:

what's up?

Alba:  
I just finished eating with my family. How about you?

Crea:

i'm hanging out in my room

Crea paused then called down to Ross, "Should I tell Alba you say hi?"

"No."

Crea:

shion doesn't say hi…

Alba:

…

Why…?

Why would you even bring it up then?!

Crea:

do you want me to tell him you say hi?

Alba:

Why would I want to say hi to him?!

Crea:

so…no?

Alba:

NO!

Crea:

no as in don't or no as in no not no?

Alba:

No as in don't!

"Alba doesn't say hi either," Crea called down to Ross.

"Tell him I don't care."

Crea:

he said he doesn't care

he's kinda mean

Alba:

I noticed!

…

Is he in the same room as you?

Crea:

yeah

…

we're foster brothers!

Alba:

…

Oh

Really?

Crea:

yeah

Alba:

Like orphans or something?

Crea:

i am

shion doesn't like to talk about it

Alba:

Ah, sorry!

Crea:

it's ok~

i don't even remember my parents and everything

and i've been friends with shion since i can remember!

i can't really say much more though

Alba:

I don't want to pry or anything!

Crea:

ok~

Alba stared at his computer. He wasn't quite sure the details of Crea and Ross's situation, but he was being truthful when he said he didn't want to pry.

Alba and Crea managed to shift to more lighthearted friendly conversation, talking about their English class, and how Mr. Fruhling barely even remembered Coach Baum existed. They discovered they were both in the same gym class the next day, which excited Alba until

Crea:

yeah! shion's in our class too!

And then Alba wasn't sure he wanted to go to gym class the next day.


	4. Group Effort

Gym class was always a pain in general.

It was even more of a pain first thing in the morning. And still even worse when Ross was in the same class.

In short Alba was preparing for literal hell.

He arrived at the locker room, pulled out his combo lock, and shoved his stuff into his locker. Since Ross was probably going to be judgmental when he showed up, and the other reason, Alba quickly took his gym clothes to a stall to change.

Once clad in his black v-neck tee and green gym shorts he stepped out into the gym. It reeked of sweat and body sprays. The floor dented in some places. Over to the side, he saw a pile of foam balls and his heart dropped. They were playing dodge ball, weren't they?

"Alba-Dono!" a voice called from behind him. He turned to see Janua and Samejima coming out of the locker room.

"What's with the dono?" Alba asked, still not quite sure what it meant.

Janua smirked and crossed his arms, "Heh! It's only what all the ninjas say in Ninja Star when referring to each other!"

Alba had no clue what this Ninja Star thing was, but obviously Janua really enjoyed it. They had only had 2 conversations, but it was very obvious. Speaking of their conversations…

"Why do you have gym?" Alba asked, "Aren't you both on the soccer team?"

"I'm not," Samejima said, "I go to every practice to cheer on my friends!"

"It makes more sense to join at that point!" Alba said.

"I like gym!" Janua said, "It gives me a chance to practice my awesome ninja skills!"

Alba was thankful that he was making friends, but these two were often a little hard to follow.

"I'm very good at dodge-ball!" Janua continued, "So it's exciting, degozaru!"

Alba elected to not ask about the degozaru, and instead ask the more pressing question, "Isn't dodge-ball banned? I thought school's had stopped doing stuff like that, I mean-"

He didn't get to finish that question because at that moment the back of his head met with one of those foam balls flying at full force. Alba fell flat on his face. He could already feel the blood dripping from his nose.

"Ow!" he cried as he heard 2 sets of footsteps running towards him.

"Are you alright?" someone asked. Alba quickly recognized the voice as Ross's. "What happened?"

Perhaps he was kinder than Alba thought. "Someone hurled a dodge ball at my head," he explained as he sat up.

"That was me," Ross continued, smirking a little.

"You jerk! What was that for?!" Alba asked. Blood was staining his gym clothes and the gym floor.

"I'm going to go get Coach August!" Crea said, "I'll be right back! Stay here Alba!"

As Crea ran off Alba frowned at Ross. What a jerk!

"Stop tilting your head back," Ross said.

"Huh?"

"Lean your head forward and pinch your nose," Ross said, "If you lean your head back blood will drip down your throat."

Alba did as told, though this made it harder to glare at Ross.

Crea suddenly appeared again, Coach August close behind.

"Oh no," August said, crouching down to get on Alba's level, "You should get to the nurse. Ross take him there."

Alba was about to object when Ross hoisted him up and dragged him away from the gym. Perhaps Ross wasn't as terrible as originally thought.

The nurse instantly sent Ross back to class, so Alba was left alone, wondering if maybe he really had misjudged Ross.

…

But it was that jerk's fault he was injured in the first place!

Alf had sat patiently in his AP Biology class waiting for Elf to show up. It was one of the only two classes the pair shared, since Elf didn't have the work ethic to take all AP classes like Alf was, but he had encouraged Alf to take many AP courses, since that was the sort of thing Alf was into. But Elf was in both AP Bio and AP Latin with him!

Or at least he was supposed to be. When the morning bell rang and announcements began to play, and Elf had still not appeared yet, Alf started to wonder if he was ditching class again. The announcements ended and Alf fiddled with the zipper to his new jacket from yesterday's academic decathlon meeting. The team had decided to pool money together to get "varsity jackets." Honestly Alf loved it, and was probably going to wear it every single day.

The teacher called out "Elf November," and there was no quick "here" reply. Alf slouched in his chair. He was going to leave class to find Elf if it came down to that! He wasn't going to let Elf get a C in a class he was smart enough to get an A in because he kept ditching!

The teacher had finished calling attendance and had moved onto collecting their lab reports. Alf passed his forward as the urge to run out of the classroom consumed him. Worry picked his mind. What if Elf wasn't just ditching? What if he was somehow hurt on the way to school?

Alf took a deep breath. He was probably ditching like he did every other day. Normally he hung around in the library, so that's where Alf was going to check first. Then the B wing bathroom. There were a few other places Elf could be hiding too, and sometimes he switched it up to avoid teachers who might be looking for him, so Alf's mental map got busy.

As Alf raised his hand to ask to use the bathroom, the door burst open and in walked Elf, already holding his pink late pass from the office.

"Sorry," he said to the teacher as he gave her his slip, "There was an accident on my way and traffic got really backed up."

Elf eagerly made his way over to the seat next to Alf and plopped down. The teacher continued with the procedure for today's lab and Alf tried to pay attention, though he missed the beginning in his worry. Eventually they were given their worksheets and walked down to the labs.

"I thought you were ditching," Alf said as they walked with their classmates.

"Nah," Elf said, "I wouldn't ditch this class. Yer in it! Unless ya wanted to ditch with me? That could be fun!"

Alf felt the blood rush to his face and looked away, "You know I wouldn't ditch."

"Yah, 'course you wouldn't. I know. You wouldn't happen ta have the homework? I forgot ta do mine."

"Elf!"

"Please?"

Alf sighed, "Fine, but at least change the wording a little this time!"

"Why didn't you apologize to Alba?" Crea asked Ross as the class had stopped for a water break.

"I thought I did," Ross said.

"No, you just told him you were the one who pelted him in the back of the head! It made it sound like you were aiming for his head!"

Ross took a long drink from his water bottle before saying, "I wasn't aiming for his _head_. I just wanted to make him jump a little."

"Don't be mean _Shi_ on!"

"I helped him to the nurse, didn't I?"

The coach took that moment to announce that everyone should hustle to the locker room so that they had enough time to change. The duo followed instructions.

"Don't you have your next class with him?" Crea asked, "What are you going to do if he's mad at you?"

"Mock him probably," Ross admitted.

"SHION!"

"Are you getting all jealous? Like 'oh I'm the only one Shion gets to mock!'" Ross laughed.

Alba walked into the locker room at the point, 2 cotton balls shoved up his nose. When he noticed them looking his way he pointed down at his (slightly bloodstained) gym clothes and said, "I need to change." He quickly grabbed his clothes from his locker then darted to the stalls to change.

Ross and Crea never felt any need to change in the stalls, so they continued conversing as they changed.

"I forgot to do my math homework last night," Crea frowned, "I hope it doesn't get checked."

"I thought you finished everything?" Ross asked.

"I thought I did, but I didn't!"

Janua's head popped out from behind a corner, "Crea-dono forgot to do his homework?" He then jumped out and tried to pose, but tripped and stumbled and fell. "I can help!" he said as he got back up and posed. Fumbling through his backpack he found a folder with some ninja anime character drawn in colored pencil on the front. He swiftly opened it up and thrust a sheet towards Crea. "Last night's homework. Janua saves the day!"

Crea decided to leave with Janua and Samejima, since they were all in the same Math class, so Ross was left alone in the locker room. He finished dressing and picked up his bags, but as he was walking out of the locker room, he ran into

"Alba?"

His classmate turned around. They had both left the locker room within moments of each other.

"Oh, hi."

"How's your nose?" Ross asked when they walked from the gym to the hallway.

"It hurts no thanks to you!"

"You really should keep a better eye out for flying balls," Ross scoffed.

"I WOULDN'T HAVE TO IF YOU WEREN'T THROWING THEM AT MY HEAD!"

"You complain a lot," Ross observed, "Is complaining your shtick? You might want to pick a better one."

"I'm not complaining to be funny!"

"What?" Ross gasped, "You're not?"

"NO!"

Ares had taken her usual seat right next to Teufel. He was quietly napping on his desk, but not for long, because Ares decided to hit his desk with full force, sending him jolting awake.

"Hey," Ares said as Teufel rubbed his eyes.

"Is class over yet?" Teufel asked as he stretched his arms up.

"It hasn't even begun yet."

"Dammit Ares!"

Ares shot him a mischievous smile.

Teufel sighed, "How much would it cost for you to let me peacefully sleep?"

"Fifteen bucks!"

"That's way too much!" Teufel argued.

As they argued over the price of sleep, they overheard 2 loud students enter the classroom. They cut their argument short to watch as that new student guy argued with the scary looking one. Something about how new kid wasn't trying to be funny or something? Neither Teufel nor Ares particularly cared about watching the pair, so they resumed to their argument about sleep until Rudolf walked in.

"Morning class!" he said, "I'm going to start class with announcing a new group project. I'm going to let you all pick the groups, so everyone arrange yourselves in groups of 3 or 4!"

Ares and Teufel glanced at each other. They already knew without saying anything that they were going to be in a group together, but who else would join it?

Just then another duo tentatively walked towards them.

"Hi, I'm Muffin, and this is my sister Macaroon," the boy said, "We were wondering if you wanted to be in our group?"

Ares looked at Teufel. He didn't seem opposed to the idea, so Ares turned to the twins and said, "Yeah sure."

Poor twins were about to do way more work than they signed up for.

Meanwhile Alba Fruhling found himself wedged into a group with Elf and Ross.


End file.
